Sleeping Bear
by Selective scifi junkie
Summary: A tip off leads Magnus and her staff to raid a bunker, allegedly full of abnormals being used for experimentation, but how far will either side go to defend what is theirs? My third Sanctuary fic, sequel to the other two. I will post summaries for the previous ones if requested.
1. Methanol

**Summary: **A tip off leads Magnus and her staff to raid a bunker, allegedly full of abnormals being used for experimentation, but how far will either side go to defend what is theirs?

**Set: **After my previous Sanctuary fic, Freedom, which is itself a sequel to my fic, Monster. I may post a summary as a one-shot.

**Spoilers: **Sanctuary for all` (obviously), maybe `Kush`, definitely `The Five`, `Revelations` (both), `End of Nights` (both), `Eulogy`, `Haunted`, my fics `Monster` and "Freedom".

**Genres: **Adventure/Thriller.

**Rating: **Fairly strong T for bloody violence, infliction and effects and fairly graphic medical descriptions. As an episode, a 15, not much worse than Nubbins.

**Disclaimer: **This world belongs to the genii Amanda Tapping, Martin Wood and Damian Kindler.

**It's been a long time, I know, but I'm back. Thanks for sticking with me.**

* * *

Magnus blinked, raising her pistol and looking around. To her left, Ashley and Kate did the same. It was almost pitch black in the bunker, the only light came from LED panels every ten feet or so on both sides of the corridor. Magnus nodded at Ashley, who disappeared, momentarily drowning the LEDs with fiery light. A second later, she was back, holding Henry with one hand, Will with the other.

"We recon first." Magnus hissed. "No forcing doors. Check perimeter, ways in, ways out, and find out how accurate our intel was."

"Was pretty clear." Kate whispered back. "Bunker, experimentation on abnormals." Magnus didn't respond.

"Henry, hold position. Everyone else, move out." Henry dropped to a crouch. Ashley and Kate began to advance down the corridor, each covering the other's movement.

They hadn't taken five steps before light burst on either side of them, revealing what had looked like solid walls to be glass panels, transparent as the light came up behind them. Cells, stark and sterile looking, were revealed on either side of the corridor, maybe ten feet long and six deep. In each of the nearest ones, a humanoid form lay on the metal grille floor, motionless, bloody on one side.

"Are they-" Will began.

"Yes." Magnus interrupted quietly. "Sasquatch. We check perimeter, them get them out. We can't leave them here." She finished, noting the raw marks from rope burns, scarring their wrists and ankles, neck of one. She felt cold inside as she began to follow Will down the corridor, in the opposite direction to Ashley and Kate.

More cells lit as they passed them. Abnormals, mostly humanoid, lay unconscious or drew back at the light, backed in to corners, eyes wide in fear, fists raised, or just whimpered and curled up. Will cursed softly.

"They've all go abuse written all over them, not even starting on the rope burns, bruises, cuts-"

A klaxon sounded. Blast doors slammed down a few yards ahead of Magnus and Will.

"Mum?" Ashley shouted over the alarm, which was ringing through the corridor.

"Start getting them out!" They might only have minutes. Ashley ran back and fired four shots in to the glass at the front of a Sasquatch's cage. It didn't stir. How badly was it injured? Ashley glanced at Kate then both kicked the glass, high and hard. An area maybe five feet across shattered. The sound was almost drowned by a voice blasting from what seemed to be all direcrions.

"Intruder alert! Five armed hostiles, cat. C, level two." Ashley bolted through the hole and vanished in a flash of fire, taking the Sasquatch with her. Two gunshots cracked down the corridor. Magnus ran for the now empty cage, where the Sasquatch had been, returning fire. Henry, Will and Kate followed her. Ashely reappeared.

"What did I miss?"

"We're under fire. Keep going." Magnus shouted back, trusting Ashley would have the sense to leave it before her stamina gave out. Ashley nodded again and reappeared in the opposite cage, then teleported out with another Sasquatch. The lone gunman opposing them seemed to retreat.

"One against four." Will said. "Not good-"

"Warning!" The PA system blared. "Security protocol five activated in cat. C, level two. Repeat: protocol five activated in cat. C, level two."

"What the hell does that mean?" Henry asked.

"Something bad." Kate provided, looking around.

Ashley returned in a flash of fire.

"Why is it so quiet?"

"We don't know." Magnus said quietly. Ashley shrugged and teleported in to another cage, then away again.

In the time before Ashley returned, Magnus noticed something about Henry. He'd been sitting still for about two minutes, but he was breathing as if he'd just been running.

"Henry, give me your hand." She said, breathily.

"Why?" He panted, extending his left hand to her. Magnus dug two fingers in to his wrist, looking at the second hand on her watch.

"A hundred and twenty-two. It should be slower than that by now, shouldn't it?"

"Magnus?" Will pressed.

"I don't know."

"Magnus, it's not just him." Will said, panting heavily now. "What is this?" Ashley reappeared. Almost at once, her breathing began to accelerate.

"Take those two now." Magnus ordered, pointing at Will and Henry. Ashley obeyed and disappeared again. Kate was gasping for breath now. Looking out in to other cages, Magnus could see the same symptoms repeated. Abnormals ran to and fro in panic, beating at the glass. Ashley returned and reached for Magnus's wrist. Magnus shook her head and pointed to another cage. Ashley obeyed.

"Don't hold your breath." Magnus panted, looking at Kate.

"Gassing us."

"Asphyxiant, not toxin. Kills by preventing oxygen uptake. Hold your breath, kill you faster." Kate raised a shaking hand to her head. Somewhere, an abnormal began to scream. Ashley reappeared, holding an oxygen cylinder and mask, which she threw to Magnus, who caught it and opened the valve. She pressed the mask to Kate's face. Kate drew breath desperately. Magnus's hands were shaking, her head was spinning. She pulled the mask back to her own face, drew the life-giving gas deep in to her lungs, quenching the fire there, calming her own, reeling vision. This was only a small cylinder. It would buy the two of them five minutes at most. Ashley had gone. Abnormals everywhere seemed to be screaming, roaring, shouting. Magnus gave the mask back to Kate, feeling the fire in her chest start to burn again. They couldn't keep this up. Ashley reappeared. She began to gasp at once this time. She didn't seem to care. She gritted her teeth and disappeared again. The screaming of the abnormals was dying out. Black spots were obscuring Magnus's vision. Fire flashed beside her. She felt a hand on her arm. She was pulled in to the void.

Magnus hit the floor hard, a different floor. Air, cook, oxygenated air rushed in to her burning chest. Her vision began to settle. Voices, male mostly shouted around her. Two called her by name. Yellow light, pale stone walls, beds lining the room. Infirmary. It was the infirmary. Still gasping, Magnus rolled over and raised her head.

"Need the defibrillator over here!" Will shouted.

"One more shot with this one." Bigfoot called back, then I give up." Will was kneeling on a bed, doing CPR on an abnormal, Henry was bagging another. She had to help. She pushed herself to hands and knees, the pain in her chest subsiding. She had to help.

o0o0o0o

Three hours later, the chaos was over. They'd retrieved six abnormals, two Sasquatch, four unknowns, only one of which didn't look human. The first Sasquatch had died within minutes from blood loss, the other was in septic shock, critical but stable for the moment. One of the human-looking ones seemed to be slowly succumbing to some sort of neurotoxin. He either wouldn't or couldn't speak and was staggering about with a fixed, sardonic grin which reminded Magnus more of tetanus than anything else. They'd given him antiserum and left him in a darkened room, not knowing what else to do, haematology hadn't given them any clues. Another apparently human abnormal had been dead on arrival from asphyxiation, or something else that didn't leave an gross physiological or anatomical marks. The last had backed herself in to a corner of the infirmary and had eventually been carried out, whimpering, by Bigfoot. She'd settled a bit since then, but Magnus and Will agreed that she'd need his help more than hers. The one that didn't look human or Sasquatch was vaguely reptilian shaped and behaviour wise, blood tests pending. It had curled in to a ball snarling when approached.

"Magnus?" Will knocked twice on the door of her office. She looked up from the monitor, which showed CCTV footage of all four surviving newcomers.

"Will."

"How are they doing?"

"Variously. The Sasquatch is still stable. She's young, so I'm hoping she'll heal quickly. The reptile has started exploring, and urinating on the walls."

"Making himself at home?"

"It would seem so. If that's what he needs to do to feel comfortable, I'm willing to tolerate that. It's the other two I'm worried about."

"The human looking ones?"

"Yes. I don't know what more I can do for the male, bug the way he is, I doubt he'll last the night." Will sighed.

"We tried, Magnus."

**Please review, particularly nitpicks.**


	2. Ethanol

**This chapter took even longer than I was expecting it to, sorry. It will be at least five days before I post again.**

Next morning, Magnus was proven right about the male humanoid. He'd collapsed at about two AM and been dead by the time they'd reached him. The reptile still looked completely at ease. Kate had thrown him a bundle of old newspapers, "just to see what he did". It had proceeded to tear the paper up in to strips about inch wide. Ashley had suggested at that point that he'd been making a bed. She'd been more right than she'd expected. The abnormal plaited the strips together, twisting them as it went, then started to weave them in to what might have been an oversized Moses basket, but the paper had run out. Kate had gone for more.

The surviving Sasquatch was conscious, to everyone's surprise. Bigfoot had gone in to talk to her a couple of hours ago. Magnus was drafting an update for the other heads of house when he knocked on her door.

"Magnus?" She smiled.

"What did she say?"

"Hoh. It took a while to get anything out of her at all. She couldn't see any difference between the people we took her from and us. She took some convincing that we weren't going to do what they did to her?"

"Which was?"

"Stick some sort of pipe in to her to get something out of her." Magnus frowned. "Do you know what that might have been?"

"No." Magnus said shortly. "And, quite frankly, I don't care. Could she tell us anything about the organisation we took her from?"

"Hr. Not much. Multiple bases, lots of guns, wide variety of abnormals, computers… She says we've kicked a sleeping bear, that they'll come and take her and the others back.

o0o0o0o

Ashley glanced up at the sky. It was gonna rain. It was definitely gonna rain. She really didn't fancy walking all the way home in the rain, not with a full shopping bag (she'd trashed three tops in a month, she needed some new ones). Her bike was at home with a flat tyre. Her best bet was to find an alley and disappear. Ashley had lived in Old City long enough to know where to find one.

The first spots of rain had started to appear by the time Ashley had turned in to a suitable place. She looked up at the buildings on either side of her, checking for observers.

"Ashley Magnus?" She turned. A man with sunglasses and a suit had appeared behind her. Suits made Ashley more defensive than hoodies. Most hoodies in a fifty-mile radius knew that messing with her was a bad idea. Suits weren't so quick on the uptake. She didn't have a gun. But if this guy was an abnormal, or knew, an abnormal, that needed help, she couldn't turn a blind eye.

"Yeah. Who's asking?" Suit smiled. Ashley's eyes flicked over him. He didn't seem to have a gun, but she wasn't sure.

"Do you work with Helen Magnus, head of the Sanctuary Network?" Ashley nodded.

"That's my Mum." Ashley heard a footfall behind her, two more guys with suits and sunglasses. She'd fallen in to the bloody Matrix. "Company?" She asked, raising her eyebrows. The first guy smiled.

"Take her." The two other guys, both bigger than the first, strode towards her, synchronised, one on each side. She could have teleported out, but she'd rather not play her ace card if she didn't have to, and this looked like fun; taking out two big guys with a shopping bag and fists.

Ashley held her ground for as long as she dared, acting like she'd frozen up. When the guys came within one pace of her, she moved. Her right hand came up, the bag swung with it, in to the face of the guy on her right. The bag wouldn't hurt him, his sunglasses would. She pivoted and feinted with her left hand at the other guy's face, dropping the bag. He moved both hands to block. Amateur. She picked up her right foot and pivoted again. Roundhouse kick to the stomach. He grunted and fell. She finished the turn. The first guy wasn't joining in. Good. The guy she'd hit with the bag, goon one, was coming at her again. He locked his fists side by side and rammed them at her head. She raised both hands to deflect. Mistake. His hands changed shape at the last second and grabbed her wrists. Crap. She twisted, trying to get free, but he was much stronger than her. She brought her foot down hard on his toes. Steel toed boots. This guy was a pro, and she'd underestimated him. Goon two was up, coming at her from behind. Ashley jumped, trusting her weight to goon one, hoping he'd be too surprised to drop her. She tucked her legs in, then kicked out in to goon two's chest. Reaction force shoved her head in to goon one's. Top of head beats nose, every time. Both goons fell down. She fell with them, landing on top of goon one. She jumped up and stamped down hard on his solar plexus. Goon two was out for the count. She looked up for the first guy. He'd legged it. She pulled her cell from her pocket, picked up her bag and started walking. She hit one on speed dial. It only rang for a few seconds.

"Mum, you are not gonna believe what just happened."

o0o0o0o

"OK guys." Head surgeon Philip Role's voice was very welcome. "Think that's it. We can close up now." Pearl Wong, and everyone else in the theatre, sighed with relief. After four hours of surgery, it was finally over. Pearl should have been home by now, her shift was over. But for a trauma surgeon, that was life. "Pearl, want to do the honours?" Pearl took a needle from a nurse and began to repair the hole in the endometrium that she herself had made four hours ago.

"You'd think people would learn to look before they crossed the road." She commented idly.

"This girl probably will now." Phil said. "She's not gonna forget that bus."

"But the number of these we see…" Pearl replied, shaking her head, "sometimes it feels like we've patched up every person in Seattle." Phil laughed.

"Seattle's a big place. Johnny boy, care to close her up? Lets see if your stitches are as good as Pearl's yet." Pearl stepped back. John sighed, then answered in his deep British accent.

"You know perfectly well that they're not and they never will be. She has the advantage of very small hands." Pearl smiled behind her mask and examined her gloved, bloody hands.

John, or Johnny boy, had joined the team six months ago. He was well mannered, reserved, polite and strong enough to pull broken ribs back in to line. When she'd first met John, Pearl had imagined him going home to a smiling, long haired, shapely woman with a low gentle voice, a bit like his, with a couple of children, ten and twelve maybe, and possibly a dog. It had been a shock to discover that, no, he lived alone, had never been married, had no children and, no, didn't have a dog. Rumour had it that he was here because of a witness protection scheme. Another rumour had it that his family had been killed by mobsters and he was in Seattle to try to forget.

Pearly knew she'd probably never know for sure, but she did know that John was an exceedingly competent surgeon. It took him next to no time to close the incision. Once he'd swabbed it, if not for the little black knots, you'd scarcely have known it was there. As they left theatre, handing over to the nurses, Phil went running off to get to someone's birthday party, leaving Pearl and John alone to de-glove and gown.

"Do you want to join me for something to eat?" Pearl asked, glancing at the clock. "It's nearly half eight, the canteen might still be open. Or we could go out and get something."

"It's really very kind of you," John replied, "but not tonight. I'd prefer to get home, if you don't mind." Pearl smiled.

"I won't force you." That was so typical of John; friendly, but calmly rejecting any attempt to be friends.

John walked briskly away from the hospital, skirting puddles and people with over-large umbrellas. He had yet to succumb to the peculiar American distaste for walking anything over a quarter of a mile, and it wasn't much more than that back to his flat (he refused to call it an apartment).

Maybe he should have taken Pearl up on her offer. It had been an offer of friendship, and he was supposed to be trying to integrate himself back in to society. Maybe he'd have been less cautious if he hadn't felt that Pearl had more than friendship on her mind. He couldn't-

"John Druitt?" A man dressed in a plain black suit had stepped out in front of him.

"No." John replied after a second.

"Who are you then?"

"John Turrel." He replied at once. "Trauma surgeon at the Ballard Emergency Room." The stranger just stared at him.

"Does the name "Helen Magnus" mean anything to you?" John relaxed his face, but knew he was too late.

"No." The stranger nodded slowly. John glanced over his shoulder. Two more men in suits, big, broad men, were approaching, eyes fixed on him.

In the split second it took for the first man to nod at the others, John knew he had three options, the three options one is always presented with if a fight is imminent: yield, flee or fight to win. Yielding was out of the question. If these men knew he'd taken sourceblood, which seemed likely, they might well want him as a subject for experimentation. Fighting to win was a risky option. There were three of them and he wasn't carrying a weapon. A year ago, knives on his person and the beast screaming him on, he would have fought to kill. The thought sickened him now. He knew these streets well. Running until he was out of their sight, then teleporting several streets would probably get rid of them. Before the first man's head had stopped moving, John took off, pushing people aside.

The road to his right was a busy one. If he could cross it, it would buy him several valuable seconds. His height was both a blessing and a curse. It gave him a better sight range and a longer stride, but it was harder to slip out of sight. Harder, but still very possible. He'd evaded almost every police force on the planet. John darted left, up another, quieter street, and broke in to a full run. Underground car park, to his left again. Good enough for a place to hide. He bolted down the ramp in to the glaring artificial light, hearing running footsteps behind him. He vaulted over the bonnet of a car, hoping against hope that his pursuers didn't have guns. He rounded a corner, down towards the next level. Shots. They did have guns.

He dropped to his knees and rolled under a car, forcing his breathing slower, hearing his pursuers approach.

"Where'd he go?"

"He must have gone on round there."

"You two go on. I'll stay and search." If he stayed, he risked being caught. The man seeing the flash of his teleport was a price worth paying for escape.

**Any predictions yet, Sarah?**


	3. Propanol

**Thanks to all of you for your reviews, I am updating as fast as I can, which currently is not very fast. I will probably average one chapter per week.**

* * *

There was no sign of life in the main room of John's flat. Everything was exactly as he'd left it. He got to his feet, breathing hard now, and turned the light on, looking around. His next move was to check the locks on all the windows and door. Once satisfied that he was truly alone, John retrieved the cell phone Doctor Zimmerman had given him and called the only number in the address book. It was answered almost at once.

"Hello?"

"Doctor Zimmerman."

"John, what's up?"

"I don't know if it's of any importance to you, but walking home today, a man I have never seen before asked me if I was John Druitt, then if I knew Helen Magnus. He and two associates pursued me. At least one of them was armed."

"Woah, woah, woah, hold up. Three guys asking your name then if you knew Magnus."

"Yes."

"Suits?"

"Yes, how did-"

"Wait a second. I'm gonna get Ashley. Something similar happened to her this afternoon." Doctor Zimmerman had obviously lowered the phone, but still John heard him calling Ashley's name. "OK. You're on loudspeaker."

"Three guys in black suits?" Ashley asked

"Yes."

"One from the front, two from the back?"

"Yes."

"Asked if your name was John Druitt, then if you knew Helen Magnus."

"Yes. I answered no, but they didn't believe me."

"Then they went for you."

"Yes."

"Yeah, I'd say same organisation. That's a pattern attack. Did you take 'em down?"

"No."

"Ashley, do you think they'll try again?" Doctor Zimmerman asked. There was a long pause.

"They might. If they do, I'd guess they'll come back stronger."

"OK. John, pack a bag. I'm gonna find you somewhere you can hide for a few days. I'll call you back soon."

"If they return before then?"

"Teleport out. To anywhere. Stay out of sight of the front door. Don't answer it to anyone Keep all your lights off. Keep your cell on you. I won't be long." He hung up. John lowered the phone, breathing and listening hard. He was well used to hiding, but this felt… different somehow. He felt trapped, vulnerable here. His eyes flicked to the kitchen draining rack. There was a knife there. It was the only weapon he had access to, and sharp enough. The thought sickened him. He turned and set about following Doctor Zimmerman's instructions.

o0o0o0o

"Magnus!" Will's voice. Magnus looked up in time to see Will jog in to her study. "Magnus, Druitt's been attacked, just like Ashley was. He's fine, but Ashley thinks they'll come back for him. We need to get him to a safe house. ASAP." Magnus paused, trying to make sense of what Will had just said.

"How long ago?"

"Five minutes? Ten?"

"He's in Seattle, isn't he?"

"Yes, but he could go to Scandinavia if there's a safehouse there."

"Doc!" Henry ran in. "Harry just called. He and Sue got trouble."

"Harry and Sue?" Will asked.

"Pair of HAPs out in Nebraska, cattle ranch. Been there years."

"What happened?" Magnus pressed.

"Three guys in a 'fancy' car rolled in and asked Harry if he knew you. He asked why they didn't just go straight to you. They grabbed him and tried to get him in to the car. They obviously didn't know what he could do. He and Sue both went wolf. Two of the guys got killed, one got away. Sue got clipped by a bullet, but she's fine. They want advice; what to do with the bodies, if they should hide…"

"Destroy the bodies. Burn them or make sure they're devoured." Henry nodded. "They can't leave any traces for police to find."

"Tyre tracks." Will added. "They need to deal with those."

"Drive cattle over them." Magnus suggested. "They have shelter on their upland pasture, don't they?"

"Yeah."  
"Phone signal there?" Henry nodded. "Tell them to go there with provisions for a week. We can send Ashley with more if need be." Henry shook his head.

"Harry and Sue hunt for fun, Doc, they'll find their own food."

"Druitt?" Will reminded her. Magnus paused. It would be simpler to keep John away.

"Give him the coordinates for the safehouse in the Outer Hebrides, and the one in Strasbourg, in case he has to move."

"Who's gonna look for him in the Outer Hebrides?" Will asked, half rhetorically.

"Doc." Kate walked in. "Buenos Aires on the phone. They've had four non-resident abnormals attacked in three hours. Three got away, one's missing."

"Who's missing?"

"Sanca, the slightly unstable, flying one." Magnus held her hand out for the phone. Kate gave it to her.

"Hello?"

"Doctor Magnus."

"Antonio, what do you know?"

"The attacks were uncannily similar, all by three men dressed in-"

"Black suits and sunglasses." Magnus said quietly. Oh dear God, what had they let themselves in for?

"Yes. How did you know?"

"We've had three like that in eight hours. How did you know Sanca had been taken?"

"People heard screams. When we got there, we found part of one of his wings and a body, suited. The claw marks look like Sanca's, and we can't contact him. He hadn't killed in eighteen years." Magnus heard the sadness in Antonio's voice. Sanca had become a fixture in Buenos Aires, and eye on the ground, and in the air, always reporting, always ready to help.

"I'm sorry Antonio." She said. "We'll do a full Heads of House conference later, but for now, get everyone you can on high alert. Prep and supply safehouses for those who've been attacked and anyone Sanca knew how to find. They might force it out of him."

"That's a lot of people."

"If you need help; supplies or manpower-"

"I think we cans cope, but if-"

"Just let me know."

"OK." Antonio hung up.

Magnus straightened her back and sighed.

"We've kicked a sleeping bear." Henry, Will and Kate just looked at her. She picked up her radio. "Ashley, Bigfoot, please come to my office, we have a situation."

"Doc," Henry said slowly, "did I hear Antonio say that their missing abnormal hadn't killed for eighteen years?"

"Very sharp hearing, Henry."

"Yeah, HAP thing, I think. When did you catch him?"

"1992, April, I believe."

"Doc, from 1990 to 2006 wasn't it policy to tag everything even slightly homicidal with a transmitter?" Magnus hesitated. He was right.

"Yes."

"You think it'll still work?" Will asked.

"It might." Magnus replied, gathering speed again. Henry sat down at her computer.

"What's up?" Ashley jogged in, Bigfoot close behind her.

"Buenos Aires have reported four attacks in the same pattern. That takes us to seven in a day." Ashley frowned. "They caught Sanca, Buenos Aires."

"His tag is on here. I need to go to my lab to trace it." Henry cut in.

"Go." Magnus ordered. Henry went.

"Doc," Kate started, "we have to hit back. We can't let them call the shots like this."

"All we can do is hit the same base again." Ashley said. "And last time, that didn't go so well. We didn't even know there were other bases, anyway, the Sasquatch could be wrong."

"Hoh." Bigfoot shook his head.

"They could just have driven her around in the back of a truck for a few hours." Ashley persisted. Bigfoot shook his head again.

"Not a Sasquatch. She'd know." Magnus nodded.

"Absolutely she would."

"Maybe we played it too nice." Kate suggested. "Maybe we need to go in, just me and Ash, with a load of explosives, get all the abnormals we can out, then blow the place."

"Not a chance." Magnus said firmly. "You'd leave abnormals in there to die. You saw their response speed. You'd never clear the blast radius fast enough. In any case, they obviously know more about us than we'd realised. They may be able to set up EM shields."

"Mum," Ashley started. "What they're doing is…" She shook her head. "They're just cruel, Mum. We have to do something. They don't think about the pain they cause." Magnus could see the pain in Ashley's eyes. This group were the Cabal reborn to her. She saw herself in every abnormal they hurt.

"I'm sorry Ashley. Until we know more, I'm not sending you in."

"Ash." Henry's voice over the radio.

"Yeah."

"Beam me up Scottie. I'm in my lab and it's kinda far."

"I'm not a taxi." Ashley complained, disappearing in a bolt of fire. She returned a moment later, scruffing a triumphant-looking Henry.

"Sanca's signal's stationary, but dampened by something, I'd guess a tonne of rock, in the middle of nowhere, South Bolivia."

"Iron content of said rock?"

"Next to none. Ash'd be fine."

"Mum…" Ashley started, a pleading look in her eyes.

"IF we do this," Magnus interrupted, "we do it as a recon, not an attack. We have no idea what kind of force we're facing. I will not enter in to this blindly."

"We kinda already did." Kate said. "We took their ghouls."

"Mum, they're already coming for us." Ashley said, building on Kate's theme. "We need to know what they can do." Magnus sighed. Ashley was right.

"I have to conference with the other heads of house as soon as possible. If nothing else comes up, we will go, but only you, Henry and me."

"What! Come on!" Kate burst out.

"It's a recon, not an assault. We need Ashley for transport and Henry to deal with computers. Doing it this way means that Ashley doesn't need to do shuttle runs, which is faster. Also, last time we lost Abnormals because we were ill prepared. With three of you waiting, our odds are much better."

"So why aren't you staying? You are ten times the medic I will ever be."

"She's got a point, Mum." Ashley said. "We can handle it.

"It's out of the question." Magnus said, a little too loudly. Judging by the look on Will's face, he knew why she was not willing to negotiate this point. She was not going to let Ashley out of her sight in a hostile base again. Not now, not ever. Kate sighed theatrically.

"Why?"

"This is not a point I'm willing to discuss. I'm going to brief the other heads of house." Magnus walked out. She was not going to explain this to Kate.


	4. Butanol

"Hold up." Kate was approaching. The conference with the other heads of house hadn't thrown anything else up, so Magnus, Ashley and Henry were going.

"Kate-" Magnus started. Kate held out a bottle of talc powder.

"What?" Ashley asked.

"Somehow, they knew we were there last time." Kate said. "Some detector beams get shown up by talc. It might help."

"Thank you." Magnus said, taking it. "Ready?" She said to Ashley. Ashley's face was taut with concentration. She nodded. A bolt of fire, and they were gone.

Ice cold wind tore at every piece of exposed skin. They were on the surface, forty feet above Sanca's signal.

"No EM." Henry shouted to Ashley over the wind, looking at the detector in his hands. Ashley nodded and pulled them in to the void again.

Almost total darkness. LED panels lit the walls every twenty metres or so, but Magnus couldn't see the floor beneath her feet. She lit her torch and held it up with her pistol. Ashley took Kate's talc and puffed it in to the air ahead. Faint red lines, two of them, one at waist height, one at head, both spanning the corridor.

"Good call Kate." Ashley breathed, ducking under the beams, still squirting talc. "Where's Sanca?"

"This way." Henry pointed. "Ten metres." They slunk on, stepping over one more beam. It was a different kind of cold inside, a refrigerated cold.

"Doc, can you smell that?" Henry hissed.

"What?" Ashley asked.

"Something here is dead." Magnus drew a breath. Sanca? They had to prepare for that. Shelves on the right, like those in the Old City police morgue. She couldn't see any wires so she pulled one out. The body looked human, wasted with illness or hunger, totally hairless and with a knife wound across its neck. But not Sanca.

The next two bodies were similar, human-looking, wasted bodies, knifed in the neck. The third they all knew at once; humanoid, stripped naked, burn marks and welts all over him, but still unmistakably Sanca. Magnus heard Ashley exhale hard. Henry turned away.

"We can't just leave him here, Mum." Ashley said quietly, she sounded as if she was fighting the impulse to cry.

"Henry, EM?"

"No. We're good."

"Take him, then." It was pointless to do it. Sanca wouldn't know they had, but leaving Sanca's body with his killers felt like neglect. Ashley disappeared and reappeared in a matter of seconds. "Come on." They advanced in silence, under and over beams, until the space opened around them. This room was circular, bigger than the main lab, with four corridors leading out. In the middle sat four computers. Henry slunk forwards, alert like a hunter now. Ashley went for the perimeter, lined by more LED panels every three feet or so, extending upwards every eight feet for at least fifty feet.

"Mum." She said, pointing her torch at the wall, which Magnus now saw to be a pane of glass, or something. Behind it, a humanoid form, upright, but unconscious. Its skin was perfectly white, blue veins showing through, and completely hairless. Raised, shining scar tissue hid any indication of gender. "Creepy." Ashley turned her torch left and right. More glass panels, with identical creatures behind. "Think they go all the way round?" She asked. Magnus lifted her torch beam.

"And up." This room was maybe thirty feet across, so ninety in circumference, each pod (for want of a better word) three feet across, so thirty creatures per layer, each pod eight feet tall, at least six layers, probably more, so a hundred and eighty of these things, just in this room. What were they?

"Doc, I'm in." Henry said, picking up two memory sticks. "This one's a hack, this one's a virus. Do the hack?"

"Yes." Magnus and Ashley fell back to the computer desk and crouched, guarding, silent and still, waiting.

"OK, that's about two thirds of their mainframe."

"So why didn't you bring a bigger stick?" Ashley asked.

"They don't come much bigger. I want thirty seconds to check the virus is working, then we can go." Ashley got up and grabbed Henry's upper arm. "Hey, hey, hey, not yet."

"Just being ready."

"A light in the corridor they'd come from."

"Henry," Magnus breathed.

"OK, we're good." Ashley holstered her gun and reached for Magnus's hand.

Infirmary. The strong light made Magnus blink after the torch beams.

"What, no ghouls?" Kate asked at once. Ashley laughed.

"We got what we went for."

"Henry, start on that data." Magnus ordered. "Current documents first, then anything pertaining to that."

o0o0o0o

"Doc." Magnus's radio crackled in to life. They'd been back about an hour, she was checking on the Sasquatch female, who was doing better.

"Go ahead, Henry." She replied, leaving the Sasquatch's room.

"You need to see this. Kinda now. Where are you?"

"Isal."

"I'm in my lab."

"I'm on my way."

Henry had obviously heard her coming, Ashley and Will following her, by the time she got to the lab. Kate was already there. Henry double clicked on something on the screen and stood back.

"Read." They all read.

'Following theft of six specimens, two of which were of proven value (see AS9721 – tranquilizer), those known to belong to the network 'Sanctuary' (see RC002) are considered active hostiles. Reconnaissance will take the form of capture and interrogation of known sympathisers (see RCS002).

Enty 002:

Capture of known sympathisers has proven difficult, with 8 fatalities (see ADA4976), 21 injuries (see AIA5298) and only one capture (see EMS629437). The captured specimen revealed the location and interior details of three strongholds: Buenos Aires (des. RCS043), London (des. RCS 044) and Old City (RCS042). RCS042 is the headquarters of the network and thus our primary target. Due to the urban location and subterranean sections, aerial bombardment would be futile. Therefore, we will use aerial drop pods containing ASS0129 to take RCS042 by storm. Intelligence suggests no more than eight defenders in residence, mostly non-professionals. However, the possibility of attack by other creatures (monsters) which may be released by defenders necessitates use of 300-400 ASS0129 specimens. Attack preparation requires 3 days.'

"When was that entry written?" Magnus asked at once.

"Yesterday." Henry replied.

"Two days." Ashley said.

"What do we do?" Kate asked. Magnus straightened, smiling, suddenly calm.

"Let them come. Henry pull up the file on ASS0129." Henry did. Magnus began to scan the file. Humanoid, five to six feet tall, de-pigmented, these were the things they'd seen in the base. No superhuman qualities she could see, she looked down to preparation.

They'd been humans. Humans, abducted, kept cold, hungry and wet to weaken them and infected with a virus. A virus that rewrote their cerebral cortex, made them lose memory, language, everything bar gross motor physical skill, amygdalas overhauled along with it. That was emotional control. The lesions were specified, almost perfectly so to remove fear, to leave almost nothing but aggression. As the process went on, their vitamin K requirements soared. So if this virus infected a human and the human wasn't injected with vitamin K, they'd die from internal bleeding. But every ASS0129 specimen was seething with virus. The virus wasn't airborne, or very persistent in the environment, but it still made fighting ASS0129 much more dangerous.

Magnus straightened up and turned to Bigfoot.

"Go round the sentient residents and bring them up to speed. Ask them if they want to stay and fight. If not, we'll move them out ASAP. Henry, send this to all the other Sanctuaries with a plea for defenders, and tell them to get virologists on to this. Find out which abnormals are immune and which aren't. Will, Kate, start informing stable non-residents of the situation. Some may wish to fight. We'll need more defenders than we have. Ashley, get some rest. We'll need you for transport soon enough.

o0o0o0o

The next twenty-four hours were a blur of activity. Will thought he must have called every English-speaking abnormal not living in a Sanctuary in the world, and a few French-speaking ones. Except Druitt. Magnus hadn't called him. Ashley was teleporting Abnormals here there and everywhere, getting non-combatants out of the way, bringing defenders in. Henry was- Henry was dead ahead of him with Magnus in the main lab, doing a video call with London.

"I appreciate the offer, Declan," Magnus was saying, "but we need you where you are, in case we're overrun." Declan nodded.

"Understood"

"Four HAPs are here now," Erica started, "two more on their way. We've also found that we're immune to the virus. We kill every viral particle in ourselves when we morph. We can lay traps and, when the time comes, run technological systems and fight. We're not arms trained, but…" Magnus nodded.

"If Henry's happy with that.

"Yeah, absolutely." Erica beamed. As if Henry would have said no.

"We've got five arms-trained defenders for you too. Holly can't wait."

"What's the ETA of the other two HAPs?" Magnus asked.

"Forty minutes." Declan replied.

"We'll send Ashley in an hour, then."

"Out." Declan said, reaching for the camera.

"Send me where?" Ashley asked, walking in. She was pale, had dark circles under her eyes and was breathing hard. Magnus frowned as she looked at her.

"Sweetheart-"

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not." Magnus walked over to Ashley and grabbed her wrist.

"You look dead, Ash." Henry said.

"Oh sweetheart, I'm so sorry." Magnus started. "I didn't think."

"What?" Henry asked.

"It's the teleportation. It used to do this to your Father too, to begin with. There's only so much you can do in a given period of time. Go straight to bed. I'll have food and water brought to you soon."

"Doc, what are we going to do about London?" Henry asked.

"We'll work something out, but we can't use Ashley."

"Doc, we have to. We need a teleporter. Tecchies are coming in from three different continents, and if they're gonna be any use, they need to be here soon."

"We cannot use Ashley." Magnus repeated.

"Magnus, we've got another teleporter sitting in the Outer Hebrides. All we have to do is ask. Druitt will come, if I understand anything about how he thinks, he'll help us.

"It is a potentially dangerous mistake to think you understand John Druitt, Will."

"Magnus, that's not fair. He was acquitted." Magnus was impossible about him. If she admitted to herself that she was still magnetically attracted to Druitt, it would make everyone's life a lot easier. "We need a teleporter, we've got one, sitting off the North East coast of Scotland, doing nothing." There was a long silence.

"North_ West_ coast, and call him in."

"No." Ashley started. "Mum-"

"Will's right, Ashley. This once, we do need him."

This once. So that was what this was why she was fighting so hard.

**I usually ask at this point: what are my chapter names?**


	5. Pentanol

John set the milk down next to the kettle. He'd been as surprised to discover that there was any in a place like this as he had been to discover that there was running water. He'd been disappointed to see that it was that over-treated stuff, which seemed to last for far longer than it ought to, then decided that was very hypocritical of him. Driving sleet blocked any daylight there might have been this far north in the depths of winter. That was why he saw his cell phone light up before it started ringing.

"Hello?"

"John," Doctor Zimmerman. Who else had he expected? "We've got a bit of a situation here. We need you to help with logistics. Can you?"

"Of course. What is the nature of the situation, may I ask?"

"It's complicated. I'll explain when you get here, but I need you to go via London Sanctuary to pick up a few passengers. Their EM is down, where can you teleport to?" John cast his mind back, looking for a place he remembered clearly.

"Entrance hall?" He suggested.

"OK. They can clear that. When you teleport to Old City, go to just inside the front door."

"When should I go to London?"

"Give it five, then here ASAP."

o0o0o0o

Magnus strode in to the entrance hall, Henry half a pace behind her. Declan had just called to tell her John had arrived in London, so should be in Old City imminently. Sure enough, the familiar fiery light filled the hall almost as soon as she and Henry reached it. John appeared with Holly Malone and a young man Magnus vaguely recognised. Shore, maybe? Jack shore? John didn't even look at her. He released his passengers, who ran away from his as he disappeared again.

"Can he only take two at a time?" Holly asked.

"Unfortunately." Magnus replied. "We were never certain why, but he can't teleport with any more than that."

"What happens if he tries?" John reappeared with two more young men, who ran away from his as he disappeared, in the same way, as Holly spoke.

"Nothing." Magnus replied.

"Well he's got a lot of shuttle runs then." Holly surmised. "There are a dozen of us." John reappeared with two young women, one ran to Holly, the other shouted with joy and ran straight in to Henry's open arms.

"Henry!"

"Erica!"

"It's been too long."

"Yeah." Magnus shook her head. Henry was in love with that girl, helplessly so. Hopefully the other HAPs would keep them on task until this was over. Henry and Erica were still nose to nose, talking quietly, when John appeared for the sixth time and dropped his head forwards, breathing hard. He looked up at her.

"That's all." Magnus nodded and touched her radio.

"Kate, get to the entrance hall. London's defenders are here."

"Way ahead of you." Kate called from the stairs. "Ash is asleep, but she doesn't look too bad."

"Good. Defenders, go with Kate and get a working battle plan. Henry, put the technicians where you need them. Oh, Kate, there's a full list of active defenders with Will, but don't forget things we can let loose."

The hall began to empty, Henry shouting instructions to the other HAPs as they went. Magnus walked up to John and extended her hand. Neutral. He took it, shook it briefly, then released it.

"Thank you." She said, earnestly. "I don't know what we'd have done if-"

"It's nothing Helen. I owe you this much, at least. Declan alluded to more people to move around."

"Yes." Magnus turned to walk down to her lab, where the maps were, gesturing him to follow.

"Is Ashley otherwise engaged? I'd have thought she'd be your first choice." Magnus shook her head.

"There's only so much she can take, and I forgot that. Ashley never admits to her own limits, she nearly collapsed, like you used to."

"What have you given her?"

"Food and water so far, it's only been an hour, and sent her to bed."

"Magnus," Will stopped just in front of her, breathing hard. "Big Guy says we're lower on ammo than Ashley wanted and – hey John, thanks for stepping in – and there've been two more snatch attempts, both failed."

"Any luck with Tesla?"

"No."

"Give up then. Get the last of the residents out of here." Will nodded, then looked from her to John and back again twice. Magnus tilted her head at him. Will nodded again and set off at a jog.

"Returning to Ashley," John began, as I recall, injection of your serum worked better than anything else did." Magnus blinked.

"I'd forgotten that. I'll dose her in an hour or so if I need to. In the mean time, there are a pair of HAPs in Nebraska who've offered to help. The coordinates are here."

o0o0o0o

John grasped the wrists of the two young Japanese men beside him, more defenders, and pulled all three of them in to the void.

An underground hall materialised around them. Kate Freelander called John's passengers over to the group gathered round a table. John turned to leave, but the door opened before he reached it.

"Ashley!"

"Ash!"

"Ashley!" A torrent of cries went up from Kate Freelander's group as his daughter crossed the threshold, grinning at the group and ignoring John.

"Mum says I'm fit for duty. What've we got?" John excused himself and started the walk back up to Helen's office. He didn't really feel like teleporting. He'd been at it for almost three hours continuously. He was flagging. But he'd keep going for as long as Helen asked him to. He owed her that; he'd have done it if he hadn't. Just to please her.

She was standing by the low table when he entered this time, bent over it, not behind her desk. She turned and straightened when she heard him, a cup of tea in her hands.

"Here." She offered it to him as he approached. "You've earned it." He took the tea gratefully and sank down on to one of the sofas.

"Are there no more?"

"Not for the moment. We've got four times the defenders they're expecting and Henry's got more technicians than he knows what to do with. We'll be ready."

"For what exactly? I'd gathered you are expecting some kind of attack, but what? From whom?" She drew breath slowly.

"From what we can tell, they're a multinational corporation calling themselves CAET, the Confederation for the Alteration and Experimentation on _Teras_, by which they mean-"

"Monsters, Abnormals." He guessed. She nodded.

"Their stated aim is to exploit the full genetic potential of the world, by selective breeding, genetic transfer, modification… Anything they can do to make something they can use. They're funded through a network of businesses we have next to no information on. They give genes, biological compounds, sometimes even the abnormals themselves, in return. They believe their ends justify any means, anything not fully human is regarded as an animal, so liable to undergo any experiment they see fit."

"How did you come across them?"

It took her maybe half and hour to explain, speaking as though there were no bar between thought and voice, he remembered the rhythms and tone of her voice as though from a distant dream. Though she spoke of violence, abuse, listening to her comforted him somehow, made him feel more human.

"And you?" She asked when she'd finished. "How have the past few months been for you?" John sighed.

"It was hard at first, to follow a schedule written by somebody else, doing everything else round it."

"ER surgery isn't the easiest schedule to follow at the best of times." He nodded. "It's a good thing we need as little sleep as we do."

"It is." John agreed, but not for that reason. He could still lie down in the dark and command himself to sleep at whatever hour he chose, but once asleep, the ghosts of those he'd killed haunted him. He could wake himself, rise, chase them away with cold water, but they would never go for long, they'd be upon him again in an hour of sleep. But he wouldn't tell Helen that. She couldn't help, so it would achieve nothing. Instead, he told her of his attempts to evade his colleagues' attempts to be friendly.

"It's not a game we can win, John, or even play, really."

"Because we-"

"Don't age." She nodded.

"How did you bear it?" He asked. "So many years living like… a human, almost." She looked down.

"The two world wars and the years between them were… were the worst. Our generation started to die, of age and what it brings, and their sons, men I remembered as children, by the thousand in the prime of their lives." She shook her head. "Nigel died, you'd disappeared, we had to fake Nikola's death soon after, only James and I were left, feeling like the last buildings in a ruined city, what London seemed to be turning in to. After that, we learned. Befriending families, not individual people, even then very selectively. I suppose we hardened to it as well."

"Did it frighten you, to stop caring?" He asked. "To stay among humans, but alone." Helen nodded.

"In the early eighties, it struck me that I hadn't let myself love anyone beyond friendship for sixty years. That was part of the reason I bore Ashley, I thought I would be able to love her, even if no one else. I was more right than I'd anticipated." John smiled.

"You always had it within you, I think. I remember how you were with the urchins James used to pay for what they saw and heard." Helen shook her head.

"It was different with Ashley from the very beginning. At any point in her life, I'd have given mine for hers." John nodded. He'd seen that, used it to manipulate her. The look on her face when he'd held Ashley from behind, screaming and struggling, was one of those that woke him. Yet he envied her for it. Before the darkness, while he'd courted Helen, he'd dreamed of children he'd had with her, not as babes in arms, but as children who would grow, children it would be his duty to guide, to protect.

"I know." He said simply. Her eyes found his again, with that open, searching look which had drawn in his confidence more than a century before, and doubtless others in the time between. All he could do was meet her gaze. Then he saw it resurface in her, that night two years ago when he'd passed every barrier she'd put in his way. The night he'd threatened Ashley to manipulate her, and laughed doing it. She looked away, breathing out hard.

"John, I don't-"

"Mum." Ashley's voice from the radio at Helen's hip.

"Go ahead."

"We have a problem. Need you down here."

"Coming." Something had gone from behind Helen's eyes, the steel shutters of time had closed behind them again. "Sorry. Feel free to go back to your old room if you want to sleep, of the library if you don't." Then she was gone.

o0o0o0o

Magnus laid a hand on the library doors, she was fairly sure John was in there. The room was silent. She looked to the right, towards the raised area just in front of the stairs.

There he was, sitting on the third step, one leg almost straight out in front of him, the other bent up, supporting his right elbow, which supported his right hand, which supported a leather bound book. Just as she'd expected. If not for his clothes and the loss of his long auburn hair, she could have been looking at him in in the Oxford library, a century and a half before. She smiled and started to walk towards him. He didn't even look up until she sat down next to him.

He started.

"Helen." He lowered the book. "What can I do?" She shook her head.

"We've got all the defenders we're going to get, Ashley's plan is as good as she's going to make it."

"So what-"

"I came to warn you, John. Two cargo planes took off from their base in Bolivia twenty minutes ago. They'll be here in five hours. If you're going to leave, leave soon." He looked at her calmly, as though sensing she had more to say. "But if you want to stay, we'd be very glad of another teleporter. Ashley's plan hinges on mobility, on being able to move people around quickly." He nodded once.

"I had no intention of leaving, Helen."

"Thank you. There are a couple of swords in the armoury. Take your pick. Everyone else is using guns." He shook his head, looking away from her. She'd expected this.

"I can't… I can't do that, Helen."

"Are you afraid you'll hurt one of us?" The lack of an answer was one in itself. "No you won't, John. Why would you? You wouldn't have in 1886, why should you now? If we're right about these creatures, they'll attack you on sight. You need to be able to defend yourself. So far as I know, you've never used a pistol, but you can fence. If you don't kill them, they will kill you. If I wanted you dead, I'd have given Ashley and Kate live ammunition." She got to her feet and walked away. Sure enough, as she reached the door, she heard John's footsteps following her.

o0o0o0o

Magnus stood at the top of the main stairs, Ashley and Holly beside her, pistol in hand, waiting.

"Planes overhead." Erica's voice over the radio. She and Henry were barricaded in his lab downstairs, coordinating Ashley's plan. "They're dropping pods."

"Here they come." Ashley muttered to herself. Magnus looked out through the front doors, open, but blocked by a scramble barrier, laced with live wires, to the darkness beyond. A series of loud thuds reverberated through the otherwise silent hall. They'd landed.

A new sound, like something breathing through a half-closed, or paralysed larynx, a rasping sound. Then she saw them, white as paper, eyes wide, mouths wide, racing for the barrier. Those at the very front collapsed, convulsing before they reached it. Those behind climbed over them an hit the second wire and were trampled in turn. The creatures ran headlong in to the barricade, clawing at it, frenzied.

"Open fire!" Ashley bellowed. The fifteen gunmen on the around her, at the top of the stairs, started to fire in to the oncoming hoard. They didn't slow. They didn't even flinch as the blood of their fellows sprayed in to their eyes.

They crumpled by the dozen at the barricade, but still they pushed it forwards. They'd be able to pass it in a moment.

"Break!" Ashley bellowed. The nineteen fighters below the stairs sprinted for doors, only a second before the barricade was breached and the creatures flooded in. Magnus kept firing, Ashley or John would teleport her out before the creatures reached her.

The creatures didn't seem to be communicating with each other, they ran after defenders, seemingly at random. The wires across the bottom of the stairs were doing a better job than bullets. There were simply too many to shoot. Flashes of fire came and went on either side of her, then she felt a hand on her arm and stopped firing as she was pulled in to the void.

**Two things to say: Firstly, does anyone remember who the HAPs in Nebraska are? I am very impressed if you do**

**Secondly, the next three weeks look uncommonly slow, I'll consider myself to be doing well if I post twice in that time.**


	6. Hexanol

**I'm listening through my itunes while typing this up. Radioactive by Pentatonix and Lindsey Stirling felt particularly appropriate to this section.**

**I feel I should warn of gory violence in this chapter, particularly the last section.**

"Hashire!" Atsushi, the leader of the four-man team Will was on bellowed. He, Will and the two other men, whose names Will couldn't spell, took off at a sprint, round the corner and on, reloading as they went. The three Tokyo defenders obviously worked together every day, they acted like one person, Will suspected the commands were for his benefit alone. "Yame!" Will stumbled to a halt, turning and levelling his pistol, panting already.

He pushed away any remaining guilt. Self-preservation. These things were basically zombies and they'd kill him unless he beat them to it. They were vulnerable to bullets at least. They crumpled under the fire of the four pistols, but they just kept coming.

"Hashire!" Atsushi shouted, as Will's pistol clicked, clip empty. He turned and ran to the next corner with the rest, dropping the empty clip and pulling another from his belt. Sooner or later, they had to run out of ammo. The Japanese men all carried six foot wooden sticks, Bo, for the moment when that happened. Will would be defenceless.

"Yame!" Will turned to fire again. He wasn't even sure sticks would stop zombies. In eight clips time, he'd find out.

o0o0o0o

Magnus stood with her back pressed to the wall, Kate beside her, both of them firing almost non-stop, but the creatures kept coming. Almost every shot hit, but every time she or Kate reloaded, the line of pigmentless flesh drew a few feet closer. They had no space left to run. If John or Ashley couldn't come when they needed them to, Magnus and Kate would die.

Only when a creature fell less than twenty feet away, still moving, groaning, she'd shot too far right, missed its mediastinum, did she call for help.

"Henry, get some one to Kate and me, now. We've got seconds."

"We're trying." Erica's voice. "Just hold on."

"I am not gonna get killed by a freaking zombie?" Kate shouted. "I've spent way too much time on COD practicing this!" Magnus made no reply. Fourteen feet. Eleven. Eight.

Fire flashed between them. John grabbed them both by the arms (where was Ashley?) and pulled the in to the void.

o0o0o0o

"Druitt." John looked up sharply. He'd been sitting in the room where their last stand would be, if the creatures made it that far, exhausted. Henry Foss's voice in his earpiece pulled him back to his feet. "Four cornered, 3rd level below, end of the East corridor."

"Going." He'd been teleporting almost nonstop for what felt like hours. He'd inoculated himself with Helen's serum earlier, he wouldn't collapse, but he was tiring.

Third sub-ground level, East corridor. They were everywhere. Even as he raised his sword, they came at him from all sides. Where were the defenders?

"Hey!" Someone yelled. "We're here!" John turned. Sharp pain across the back of his left hand. He balled his fist and punched the creature that had bitten him. He felt its nose break. John ran to the four defenders, backed in to a corner, three of London's fighters and the boy who lived here, with another face on the back of his head, a living Janus.

"He grabbed the two nearest by the wrists, his sword was tied to him, and teleported. Three levels down, the next standpoint for this group. Back again. He only just saw it in time. A creature dived at him, but on to his sword. He twisted, following the sound of a human's cry of pain. The Janus-boy was down, the flame-haired Irish girl standing over him, spattered with blood, grim faced. He grabbed them both and took them down.

"What are we doing with th'injured?" The Irish girl asked, still breathing hard.

"The Sasquatch is on level minus ten, doing what he can." John replied. "The infirmary isn't safe any more."

"How much ground've they got?"

"I don't know. Everything above ground, I think. There may still be pockets."

"SHU breached?"

"If not yet, it will be soon." The Irish girl grinned.

"Can't wait to see them facing a Karulun. Take Chuck down to Bigfoot." She gestured at Janus-boy. "And thank you. You saved our necks there."

o0o0o0o

"Ash." Henry said in to his mic. "Get to your Mum and Kate. Fifth level down, West, going to seventh."

"Going." Ashley answered. They'd been at this over an hour now, but she was still going.

"Henry." Erica said from behind him. He looked round. A bunch of zombies were throwing themselves at the grille over the radio conduit on the third floor below, a way below them. And the grille was caving. "How far could they get down that?" Henry shook his head.

"It narrows. They'd get stuck on the… Oh no." The cables weren't bolted in. It was on his to do list. If one of them jumped down there, it'd pull the cables and kill the radios. The grille caved. Henry grabbed his radio. "Everyone, we're about to lose radio!" He flipped the switch to receive.

"Wha-" Static. Henry and Erica stared at each other.

"What do we-" Thump. Something hit the other side of the door they were hidden behind. Very hard. Thump. Thump thump. Thump. "They've found us." Erica breathed. "How long will the door hold?" She sounded so scared.

"Not long." He wanted to hold her, to tell her everything would be OK. But he couldn't. "We need to seal everything we can't leave open: SHU, the elemental…" They both went to remote door control, it took them seconds. Thankfully, the Karulun hadn't gone out of the SHU.

"We don't have guns."

"We don't need them." He looked at her meaningfully. The fear in her eyes doubled.

"Henry, I can't."

"You have to. They'll kill you if them don't." She shook her head.

"I can't. What if we run in to defenders?"

"Erica, you're safe now. The drug's out of your system. You keep your mind. It's just like hitting Beast Form on Skyrim. We're faster, we're stronger, but we're still us." She didn't reply. She'd frozen up. He turned away from her, to face the door. The hinges were starting to move.

He was breathing harder now. He'd seen plenty of zombie kills in films, he pulled the blood, the screaming to the surface of his mind, running rampant among the Silver Hand on Skyrim as a wolf, hunting dreams, anything. He stripped to his underpants, while his hands were still human. He could feel his skull starting to change shape, his heart hammering now, fur sprouting along his forearms. He was about to lose his hands. He dropped his underpants. Erica was right behind him. Sound cut out. She'd seen everything there was to see anyway. He had to keep his mind on this. Sound returned, clearer, sharper. Colours were muted now, but depth was unbelievably clear. Somehow, there was no pain as the bones in his hands lengthened, forming a wolf's paw. He fell forwards to all fours, legs still too long, but that didn't last. His forelegs lengthened, hindlegs shortened as he drew them under his hips. He staggered as his hip joints shifted, until taking the weight through them that way felt natural. The air was forced out of his lungs in a growl as his ribs bent, letting him bring his forelegs together. He drew another breath and began to growl for real, feeling his hackles rise, his tail starting to grow.

A soft, half-stifled yelp of pain from behind. He barely had to turn his head. Erica, crouching on the floor, reaching for the fastening on her bra, head changing shape, fast. He wanted to go and stand by her until she was safe, until she was ready to run with him. But it wasn't a time for that. It was a time for fighting and they were strong enough. He turned his eyes back to the door. The bottom hinge was out. It wouldn't be long. He let the growl grow in his throat, standing still as a statue, staring at the door.

It fell. The zombies burst through. Henry met them running. The first two fell aside as his paws hit the chest of the third. He lowered his head to bite at its neck – that was how wolves killed, wasn't it? Blood sprayed in his face, over his front legs. He recoiled, expecting it to taste disgusting. But it didn't. To the wolf-mouth, it tasted… right. Another zombie-thing grabbed at his neck. He turned his head and bit, hard, just below the elbow. Blood filled his mouth again and his teeth met bone. He let go and reared up, going for the throat again – it worked last time.

Something grabbed his back legs and pulled hard. He fell on to his chest and tried to turn round. One of the things had grabbed him. He lunged at it, but another one grabbed a foreleg and pulled. Painfully hard. He couldn't reach to bite either of them. They were trying to tear him apart.

The hands on his back legs jerked left, then slid off. He fell in to the zombie holding his front leg and bit, arm then neck, shaking his head until a lump of flesh came away in his teeth. He dropped it and turned. Where was the other one, the one that'd had his back legs? He looked round.

Another wolf, darker brown, standing over a creature's body, mouth running with blood. He stretched his head out towards her. She smelled of earth under trees, of blood, and of fear. She was breathing hard. He pressed his nose in to her neck, leaving more blood there. Erica looked at him, her eyes had gone a duller colour, but they still looked like Erica's eyes.

Running footsteps, rasping breath outside in the corridor. Henry turned, baring his teeth. There were more of them. He looked round at Erica. She stepped up beside him. So long as they covered each other, they'd be OK.

He jumped forwards, feeling Erica close by his side. So long as they stayed together, they'd be OK.

**Any other Dovahkiin reading this? There is no doubt in my mind that Henry plays.**


	7. Heptanol

**If I succeed in getting a chapter out next week, I will be very surprised indeed. **

Ashley slunk through the corridor, alone, gun levelled, breathing as quietly as she could. Radios had been out for more than two hours. She had no idea where anyone was, or if anyone was alive. Footsteps round the corner ahead. She dropped back in to a doorway, ready. She only had one round left in her clip.

Two of them, those things. They hadn't seen her yet. She took one hand off her pistol and fired. One crumpled. The other turned and sprinted at her. She dropped the empty clip and reloaded as fast as she could. It was only five feet away when she shot it. It was still moving, bleeding out, as she walked past it.

More footsteps. Ashley froze again, listening. Behind her. She turned. The footsteps stopped.

"Who's that?" A voice called.

"Kate?" Ashley called back.

"Ash?" That was Kate. Ashley breathed out swiftly as Kate rounded the corner. Alone. One of her arms was tied against her body in a sling, blood oozing through it.

"Where's Mum?" Kate shook her head.

"I don't know. After coms went down, we were holding a position, we heard someone scream behind us, she ran to look and told me to stay." Ashley swallowed.

"How long ago?"

"Half an hour?"

"And you haven't seen her since."

"No. Ash, this is your Mum we're talking about. She's kinda hard to kill." Ashley nodded.

"C'mon. How much ammo have you got left?"

"Clip and a half. You?"

"Five clips, minus one shot, but my ammo won't fit your gun."

They walked on in silence for what seemed like a long time, stopping to listen a lot. Suddenly, Kate grabbed Ashley's arm to stop her. Ashley stopped and listened. Something was coming, but it didn't sound like a biped.

"Who's there?" She called. A long howl was the only reply.

"HAP?" Kate called. Two HAPs rounded the corner, one dark, reddish brown, the other black, greying round the muzzle. So neither was Henry.

"Who are you?" Ashley asked. They both just looked at her. "Oh. Sorry. You can't talk." They shook their heads.

"Change back." Kate suggested. "We can fight off any of those things we meet." They shook their heads.

"Naked thing." Ashley reminded Kate. "OK: Are you British?" They shook their heads. "Male?" The black nodded, the brown shook her head. "From North America?" They nodded. Ashley hesitated. "Harry and Sue?" They nodded.

They went on, for what felt like over an hour, finding people now and then, some injured, one dead, a fighter from Buenos Aires, barely recognisable, and a lot of bodies of those things. Still no sign of Mum, or Biggie, Henry and Erica had turned up in HAP form, Erica limping badly. Of the thirty five defenders they'd had, they had sixteen with them, not counting the dead one. In some places, the floor hadn't been visible for blood, and the bodies of the things were piled so high they couldn't walk through as much as scramble over them. It would take forever to clean this mess up.

Infirmary level. Good. They could leave the injured here, and give the HAPs who hadn't found their clothes yet scrubs to change in to. Voices ahead. Human voices. Lots of them. Ashley broke in to a run, rounded the corner and almost collided with Druitt. He turned and shouted.

"Helen! She's here!" He looked nearly as bad as Ashley felt. He was covered in blood, particularly his hands. Some stuff just didn't wash off.

"Oh thank God." Mum came running down the corridor and hugged her. She was covered in blood too. "Are you hurt?" Ashley shook her head then looked behind her.

"Some of them are."

Mum's way of dealing with the virus, as Ashley understood it, was to get everyone who was susceptible (i.e. humans and near-enough humans) to shower and change in to scrubs. Wounds were dealt with by her and The Big Guy, gloved and gowned, changing between patients. Then you waited. You just waited for four hours, before you even took the test for the virus. Some people had gone to sleep. Ashley had no idea how. She was still full of adrenaline, but there was nothing she could do with it. So she, Kate and Holly sat down in a corner and talked, about anything they could think of, anything except the news they were waiting for.

o0o0o0o

Magnus went back to the test tube rack. There was a blood sample there for every creature in the place that could be infected, mixed with an IgA antibody solution Tokyo had managed to create, remarkably quickly, to make infected blood clot. The control tube hadn't clotted yet, good. Neither had hers. She'd half suspected sourceblood would protect her, in spite of the bloody graze on her left hand.

"Everyone," She called across the quiet room. All remaining voices fell silent. "if I call your name, you are not infected, so feel free to leave and find a bed for a few hours. It's still four hours until the clean-up starts in earnest." She turned to the test tube racks, each tube initialled , and began to read. She'd skip any clotted tubes. "Holly Malone, Matt Burley, Joh-" No. There were two JDs. John was MJD to differentiate them. "Sorry, James Doyle." On it went. She managed not to sigh with relief when she reached Ashley's name. When only the clotted tubes remained, she halted, before turning and matching the initials to the people left in the room: Will Zimmerman, Kate Freelander, Chuck Massey, Chaddika Dezai, Ho Cuxin, John Druitt.

Kate was looking at the floor, some six feet away from where she sat, eyes cold and distant. Chuck was staring at his own hands, the back of his head shouting

"What? What's going on?" Chaddika Dezai, Iranian, born to be given in arranged marriage at fifteen, but she'd run away, found the Cairo Sanctuary, was looking steadily at Magnus, not a trace of fear. Ho Cuxin's face was an emotionless mask, his Tae Kuan Do training overruled everything else. Will was looking at her with something between sadness and acceptance, but stronger than both, trust. John wasn't looking at her either, his eyes were down, his face showing more resignation than anything else. It was an echo of the expression he'd worn before taking the sourceblood. It was the expression he wore when he knew pain lay ahead of him, but he couldn't avoid it. Magnus drew breath to speak, unsure of what she could say.

"We know, Magnus." Will said He looked away and repeated, more quietly. "We know." He pulled himself to his feet. "Isal rooms are this way. Come on." The five other infected trooped out after Will, John helping Chuck, Ho Cuxin helping Chaddika, all avoiding each others eyes, like men marked for death.

o0o0o0o

Magnus knocked on Will's door. He looked up and beckoned her in. She unsealed, passed through and resealed both doors, one after the other.

"Hey." He said quietly, not looking at her.

"How are you feeling?" He shrugged.

"Right now, fine."

"Is there anything I can get you?"

"Ah… my tablet and I think there's a stack of journals on my desk I haven't had time to read." She nodded.

"Call if you think of anything else, or feel…" He nodded.

"Incubation period's twelve to thirty hours. By my count, I've got at least six left. Go get some rest." The look on his face told her he knew she wouldn't. She turned to leave. "Magnus."

"Will?"

"There's something else." She tilted her head at him. "Magnus, you know my Mum's dead and I haven't seen my Dad in years. I've got no one waiting for me." Magnus thought she knew where this was going, but she wasn't going to help him get there. "I read the notes as thoroughly as you did." He paused for breath. "We both know there are three ways this can go: One, I survive and recover. Two, I die, from internal bleeding sequalea to it, or the pyrexia itself. Three, you give me vitamin K to keep me from bleeding out and I turn in to one of those things." Magnus dipped her head. "Magnus, don't do that. We both know the brain damage is irreversible. Even with the vitamin K I'd be brain dead."

"Will, that's a choice I was going to offer to all six of you. It seems you've already made up your mind." Will nodded

"Yeah. Yeah, I have." Magnus nodded.

"I'll get you the journals." She turned to leave again.

"Magnus?" She turned back to him. "Just so you know, I… I wouldn't have missed it. Not for anything." She nodded.

"I know, Will." She'd kicked a sleeping bear.

o0o0o0o

Ho Cuxin had said he'd rather die than become his own enemy, unsurprisingly. Of the five she'd asked so far, He, Will and Kate had given the same answer. Chaddika and Chuck had asked for more time to decide, which she'd given them happily enough. She had only one left to ask, John. She knocked on his door, he looked round at her and nodded.

"How are you feeling?" It was the first thing she'd asked all of them.

"Perfectly normal, as yet. Just tired, and that's the teleporting." She nodded.

"John, how much did I tell you about the virus?"

"Enough." He replied quietly. " I know what could happen: I live, I die or I become one of them."

"Actually, you could only become one of those things if you're given vitamin K to prevent exsanguination. Otherwise, you would die. The question is, would you want me to give you vitamin K, if it came to that?" Much to her surprise, John laughed softly.

"I'm surprised you have to ask, Helen. I was a prisoner inside my own body for a hundred and twenty-three years. I have no wish to return to that, even if it means death. I have lived longer than any human – least of all myself – has a right to – what?" Magnus had half-smiled.

"Oh, nothing. I just said something similar myself once, when I found myself in a situation not dissimilar to this." He looked at her, asking if she cared to say more. "A unicellular parasite infected me and started damaging my limbic system"

"Bermuda." John said, as soon as she paused for breath.

"Yes. How did you-?"

"We thought it might be the cause, or part of it, for Ashley's… mania, if you remember. Magnus nodded.

"Yes."

"And you said you'd rather die than…"

"Let it cause me to kill Will." John looked down.

" I only wish I'd had the courage, to choose to be the subject, rather than the object of death."

"It's what you're doing now." He had no answer to that. Of course he didn't. Refusing to kill again didn't atone for the deaths he'd already caused. "Is there anything I can bring you?" She asked after a moment.

"Something to read, if it's no trouble." She nodded.

"Of course." She left, running over the list of things people had asked for: Journals for Will, Kate's Nintendo, Chuck's comics, Chaddika had wanted pen and paper to write letters in case she died, Ho Cuxin hadn't wanted anything, as soon as she'd left, he'd sat down to meditate, and now something for John to read.

**My main question to you over the next few chapters is this: Who do you feel to be in danger and why? The danger is far from passed.**

**By the way, does anyone recognise this bear?**


	8. Octanol

**I'm back. I would like to thank Sam Tsui for making excellent music I can listen to while typing up. If you don't know who he is, search his name on Youtube. He is amazing.**

**Anyway, fic.**

Magnus walked back towards the ISAL corridor. It had been eight hours since John, Will, Kate, the infected had been put in there. Somewhere, and Irish accented voice, a young woman, was singing.

"Alive! Alive-O!

Alive! Alive-O!

Crying-" The voice stopped as it heard Magnus's footsteps. Holly Malone on her hands and knees, scrubbing the floor. She smiled embarrassedly at Magnus as she passed.

Magnus let herself in to the ISAL corridor. Will's room was first on her left. Henry was in there too, sitting on Will's bed. Both seemed, strangely enough to be hitting the bed between them repeatedly. It wasn't until Magnus got through the first door that she saw why. Playing cards lay in piles between them, Henry and Will moving them around as fast as they could. Magnus smiled as she entered.

"Slam!" Henry shouted grabbing one of the piles. "You goin' down Zimmerman!" Then he saw Magnus. "Sorry Doc."

"You're not doing anything wrong." She said, then to Will. "How are you feeling?" He shrugged.

"Not great, not awful." She tilted her head at him. She needed more than that. "Headache, cold."

"Tired?" He shook his head.

"I just woke up. Henry's OK to be in here, isn't he?"

"Morph and back between doors. That'll get rid of any virus you've picked up, but it's fluid bourn anyway, so you should be alright." Henry nodded.

"Cool."

Will, it turned out, was slightly pyrexic, submandibular lymph nodes up, though not as much as axillary, otherwise fairly normal.

"I feel like I'm waiting for a bomb to go off." He commented, taking the paracetamol Magnus offered him.

"The problem is, we have no idea how bad this is going to get." Will snorted.

"Thanks Magnus."

Kate wasn't alone either. Ashley was sitting a couple of metres away, one knee drawn up to her chest.

"I'm keeping my distance." Ashley protested as soon as Magnus opened the door.

"I didn't say anything, Ashley."

"Well, you were going to."

"Wouldn't you be OK anyway?" Kate asked. Her voice sounded slightly hoarse. Ashley shrugged.

"Druitt's got it. The mutations don't protect us." Druitt. Magnus knew it would take Ashley a long time to be calm around John, doubted she'd ever acknowledge him as her father, but still, hearing her speak of him so… It didn't matter.

"How are you feeling?" She asked Kate.

"Not so great."

Kate, it turned out, was slightly more pyrexic than Will. Anti-pyretics, antivirals and sending Ashley out so Kate would sleep was just about all Magnus could do for her. There was a reason Magnus hated viruses. Chuck was asleep, but in a similar state to Kate. She woke him to dose him up, and was sworn at by the back of his head. Ho Cuxin, unhelpfully, described his condition as

"Prepared for the fight that stands in my path." Chaddika was lying very still when Magnus entered, she could have been asleep, but she sat up as soon as Magnus drew close. Her eyes were red-rimmed.

"The letters are there." She said, pointing to the top of the cabinet. "It says on them who they are for. It's funny." She lowered her head for a moment. "I didn't really think about what I wanted you to do about… Vitamin K until I started trying to think about the letters." She dabbed the heels of her hands to her eyes and sniffed. "And I'm crying now. I haven't cried since… since I ran away, hardly anyway."

"It's understandable." Magnus put in. Chaddika looked up at her.

"I don't want it, the Vitamin K. The choice is to be dead or brain dead. It won't make any difference to me. There's no point in living like that."

Only John left now. Chuck had been the worst so far, Bigfoot was sitting with him. His case was also complicated by the fact that the two sides of his head disagreed about the Vitamin K. John was sitting in bed when Magnus came in, book in hand. He looked up when he heard her.

"Where are you up to?" He flicked his eyes back to the book.

"'What was Oliver's horror and alarm as he stood a few paces off, looking on with his eyelids as wide as they would possibly go, to see the Dodger plunge his hand into the old gentleman's pocket and draw from thence a handkerchief!'" Magnus smiled.

"So the hue and cry begins. I always thought it felt rather like a foxhunt." John chuckled.

"Frenzied pursuit of terrified quarry, but largely enjoyable? I agree. They still happen in a lot of places. If I saw one, I usually joined in." Magnus tilted her head at him.

"On which side?"

"Oh, chasing the thief. For a hue and cry to work, the malefactor has to be caught at it." That hadn't been a good thing to ask, so Magnus changed tack.

"How are you feeling?" John sighed.

"I've certainly felt much worse." She gave him a disparaging look.

"John, we've both taken Sourceblood. If it were anywhere near as bad as that, you wouldn't be able to tell me so coherently." He shook his head.

"It's just a headache and feeling cold at the moment. I expect it will get worse."

"You should probably get some sleep." John laughed coldly. She tilted her head at him.

"Do you really think I could Helen?" It took Magnus a moment to understand the question.

"You still see them, don't you?" He nodded.

"I think I will for as long as I live. Your people did not sentence me Helen, my own mind seems to have done that." Magnus drew breath to ask if he wanted to speak to Will about that, once this was over, if they were both still alive, but stopped herself. John was one of her kind. Their generation had taken whatever life dealt hem standing and silent. You didn't complain, you didn't acknowledge it. You carried on. He'd see speaking to a psychiatrist the same way she did, as an admission of defeat. John looked up at her again. "It needed to be done. No murder should go unanswered."

"John, the Whitechappel Ripper is currently buzzing around a sealed circuit some forty miles away from Moscow, and in all likelihood always will be." He looked down.

"You have confidence in the judgement of your people." Magnus nodded, but that wasn't the only reason. With hindsight, her first response to finding out… had been disbelief. Even panic had taken the better part of a day to set in. Somehow, she'd known, she'd just known that it wasn't right, that John couldn't have done that. At the time, she'd ignored it, put it down to not wanting to see what was in front of her. For all the time she'd spent telling her various protégés over the years to trust their intuition… But how could she have known? They'd barely discovered bacteria, the idea of something living, but too small to see was new and wild, something living and made of pure energy beyond consideration.

"I'll give you paracetamol now, let me know if your condition changes."

Magnus walked back out of the ISAL unit. It was a moment before she head any signs of life at all. Somewhere, further away, Holly Malone was singing again.

"She died of a fever,

And no one could save her-"

o0o0o0o

"Chaddika's dead." Bigfoot said as soon as Magnus re-entered the ISAL corridor.

"What?" She'd only been gone three hours, to snatch some sleep, at everyone else's insistence. "She wasn't too bad when I left." She'd been unconscious, had a fairly high fever, but she hadn't looked on the cusp of death.

"Happened fast. Fever went up, blood pressure rocketed, she just started bleeding."

"From where?"

"Nose first, convulsions started, then just about everywhere. Through her skin in a couple of places. Couldn't stop it. She bled out and crashed 'bout twenty minutes ago."

"Oh dear God. The rest of them?"

"Ho Cuxin's out, not much change. I've sedated Kate, she was in a lot of pain. Chuck's out, high fever. Druitt's the same as Chuck. Will's improved a bit. He seizued 'bout two hours ago, stopped. Henry's with him."

"Is Ashley still with Kate?"

"No. She went once I'd put Kate out." Magnus nodded.

"I'm going to look at Chaddika's body."

"Hoh." He put a hand on her arm. "Too risky. It's a mess. I took samples. Wait until the virus will have denatured."

"Hey!" Henry's voice, muffled by the glass. "Hey, get in here!" Magnus and Bigfoot turned and almost ran though the doors. Will was twitching, gasping, those half-voiced gasps she'd only ever heard when Will was truly scared. He arched his back suddenly, nearly throwing himself off the bed.

"Hold him." Magnus ordered. Bigfoot and Henry took a side each. Will was already on a monitor. That saved time. His heart rate and blood pressure were high and still rising. "Is this what happened with Chaddika?"

"Hoh. Close enough."

"Oh crap." Henry breathed.

"What did you give him before?" Will cried out, somewhere between a gasp and a scream. He must have been in so much pain.

"Six mg diazepam." Magnus nodded and ran for the cabinet. He veins were easy to find, getting the drug in was more of a challenge. Bigfoot and Henry were all by lying on top of him. His teeth were chattering. Magnus waited. The seizure might be abating slightly, but it wouldn't stop at that dose.

"Two more?" She asked Bigfoot. "When did you dose him before?"

"Long enough ago." Two more. Slowly, the spasms in Will's muscles grew weaker, less frequent, but his blood pressure was still worryingly high. If this virus killed by exsanguination, they needed to bring it down.

"Prazosin." She said, as much to herself as anyone else.

"Hoh." Bigfoot threw his head back in anger.

"What?"

"If I'd thought of that-"

"It doesn't matter now, and it may well do no good at all, particularly if it's not sympathetic tone holding his blood pressure up, but right now, all I want to do is get his blood pressure down."

"The prazosin worked, or it seemed to. Will's blood pressure was returning to something like normal and the seizure hadn't started again.

"We can't leave him now." Bigfoot said.

"I'll stay." Henry offered. "I can't get it." Magnus nodded.

"Thank you Henry. Put two hundred mg of Phenobarbitone in his drip every half hour for the next two hours. That should keep the seizures at bay." She was at the door before he spoke again.

"Ah, Doc?" She turned and walked back to Will's side. Henry was pointing to Will's mouth. There was still foam in one corner. Blood-stained foam. "Think he bit himself?"

"We can only hope so."

o0o0o0o

Chuck, Kate and Ho Cuxin were all fairly alike; unconscious, quite badly pyrexic, non-responsive (though that could have been the diazepam in Kate's case). If not for how fast Chaddika had died, Magnus wouldn't have been immediately worried about any of them. Apart from John. To look at him, Magnus would have assumed he was seizuring, but his vital signs suggested he wasn't, and his muscular spasms were far too localised, and Phenobarbitone had done nothing at all. More than anything, he looked like a child in the throes of a nightmare. His pyrexia was nearly bad enough to kill him. She did all she could; Paracetamol for the pyrexia, and probably pain, if he could register it, and she sat by him, just talking, like she had with Ashley, after the reverse mutation, about Ashley as a child, about the work she'd done with her father in the nineteenth century, how James had joined them, her occasional escapades with James, that Arthur Conan-Doyle had loved hearing about.

"He asked the three of us to wait and went in to a back room, we hared him lock the door, then a lot of furniture moving for a minute or so, then a clunk. James said we'd been waiting lone enough, so he and Nigel made a go at breaking the door down. I shot the lock in the end. We ran in to find him trying to hang himself! Fortunately, he'd made a mess of the knot, so he was still breathing. Nigel held his legs up while James and I cut him down. Arthur made a whole story out of that incident, put clues around it enough for his Sherlock to work out, but no one else. We always had a good laugh when the results appeared in the pa-" A loud knock on the window. Bigfoot.

"Magnus!" His voice was muffled by the glass. She got up and almost ran to him.

"What is it?"

"Chuck. Seizure." Magnus nodded and ran for the door.

**I ask again: Who do you feel to be in most danger?**

**And does anyone recognise this bear?**


End file.
